SEBI Investigation In To Adani Group’s Investment Ties With Gulf Asia FundSEBI, the market regulatory authority, has begun an investigation on the ties between the Indian conglomerate Adani Group and Gulf Asia Trade and Investment, incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, said sources who were in the know, the Reuters reported. The investigation is undertaken to ascertain if any rules regarding share ownership has been flouted by the Group.
The probe, is the latest by the SEBI in to the Adani Group which has been accused of fraud in accounting and stock manipulation in a report released by the short seller Hindenburg research. The report was released in January. The report contained allegations that the offshore shell business firm covertly had stakes in the Adani group’s listed companies.
The data which has been shared by the Organised Crime and Corruption reporting Project (OCCRP) with the Reuters shows, that the fund has investments in several listed companies which belongs to the Adani Group. The data shows that the Gulf Asia Fund had begun investment in Adani’s listed companies, months after June 2013, after SEBI had given directions to 105 companies to increase the number of shares by the public to two percent of their total floats.
The Gulf Asia Fund belongs to a Dubai-based business man, Nasser Ali Shaban Ali, its website said. The website has now been pulled down. The Fund had invested in two of Adani Group company shares worth $51.4 million as of April 2014. The companies in which the Fund was invested in are – the Adani Enterprises and Adani Power.
In four Adani entities – Adani Enterprises, Adani Transmission, Adani Ports and Adani Power, the shareholdings went up to $202 million. The report further said that the Gulf Asia Fund was not listed in the annual reports of Adani Enterprises as a related party.
Days after the OCCRP report, Adani Group said, “we categorically reject these recycled allegations. These news reports appear to be yet another concerted bid by Soros-funded interests supported by a section of the foreign media to revive the meritless Hindenburg report,” the mint reported.
The SEBI probe would be checking in to make sure whether the ties between the two groups have been undertaken in the right manner, by keeping by the law it had to abide by. Until now, the Adani Group has denied the allegations related to non-transparent funding and accountancy fraud. Charges upon it levelled by the OCCRP has been dismissed and the Hindenburg report has been called as a “calculated attack on India.”